Artificial leg



April 14, 1953 T. c. OGORMAN 2,534,424

ARTIFICIAL LEG Filed Sept. 12, 1951 2 SHEETS-Sl-IEET 1 April 3 'r. c. O'GORMAN 2,634,424

ARTIFICIAL LEG Filed Sept. 12, 1951 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 Patented Apr. 14, 1953 ARTIFICIAL LEG Thomas C. OGorman, Greenside, Johannesburg, Union of South Africa Application September 12, 1951, Serial No. 246,177 In the Union of South Africa SeptemberlQ, 1950 3 Claims.

This invention relates to artificial legs.

An artificial leg is manufactured with a socket into which the stump is inserted. For the comfort of the wearer, it is essential that the socket conform exactly to the contour of the stump. The customary procedure is to approximate the socket to the contour of the other limb, and to fabricate a leather socket to be an exact complement of the stump. The socket is then inserted into and secured to the artificial limb.

Obviously, the fabrication of a leather socket calls for a high order of skill, since any inaccuracies will inevitably result in discomfort, abrasions and consequent skin ailments. It follows, too, that the cost of the artificial limb is necessarily high.

The object of the present invention is to provide a socket which is more satisfactory than the leather socket, from the points of view of comfort, health, cost and speediness of manufacture. According to the invention, the socket is double walled, and is made of a resiliently flexible mareterial; the walls being spaced apart to provide an enclosed air-tight cavity with a series of webs spanning it and dividing it into a number of interconnected compartments; and there is a valve to permit inflation or deflation of the socket. Further according to the invention, the socket includes a series of Webs spanning the cavity and dividing it into a number of interconnected compartments. The webs are preferably arranged longitudinally as well as circumferentially to provide a reticulation of compartments.

Two embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a socket suitable for a below-knee amputation;

Figure 2 is a vertical section of the socket of Figure l in use;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a socket suitable for an above-knee amputation;

Figure 4 is a vertical section of the socket of Figure 3 in use; and

Figure 5 is a side view partly in section of the socket of Figures 3 and 4, slightly modified.

The sockets illustrated are made of soft rubber, natural and synthetic. They are constructed to provide two walls 6, I spaced apart to provide a cavity 8.

The walls 6, l are connected together by a series of webs 9 which extend both longitudinally and circumferentially, and which are sufliciently discontinuous to divide the cavity 8 into a recticulatlon of compartments III which intercommunicate.

A flexible pipe II is attached to the socket; in

Figures 1 and 2 at the top, and in Figures 3 to 5 at the bottom. The pipe communicates with the reticulation of compartments It, and at its outer end it has a non-return valve I2 with a nipple it suitable for the pipe to be connected to inflating means such as a bicycle pump.

At its upper end, the socket has a fillet or fillets I4 the purpose of which is to locate the socket in a container provided by the upper end of an I artificial limb I5.

In Figures 1 and 2, the fillet, I4 is a bead extending around the greater part of the circumference of the socket and accommodated within an annular recess I is at the top of the limb I5. The fillet is discontinued at Mb to provide gaps for the supporting iron I6, and is inclined to the axis of the socket to clear the patella and hamstrings of the stump II.

In Figures 3 and 4, the fillet consists in a flap I lc which is folded back over the socket, as shown in Figure 4, to form a recess I8 to receive the upper end I5b of the limb I5.

The fillet I4 acts also to locate the socket on the stump I1 and prevent it from creeping upwardly, since the fillet is rather stiffer than the remainder of the socket and abuts against the knee structure Ila (Figure 2), or the groin and the fl)eshy protuberance of the buttock I'Ib (Figure 4 In Figure 5, the socket is located within the limb I5 by means of several bosses I8 which engage in a recess or recesses, such as registering holes I9, formed in the wall of the limb I5.

In use, the stump I'I clad in the usual stocking 20 is inserted into the cavity of the artificial limb I5, with the deflated socket between them. The socket is then inflated. The pipe II, in Figures 1 and 2, is bent over the limb I! and held against it by a rubber band 2|. In Figures 3 to 5, the pipe passes through a hole 22 in the limb to expose the nipple I3.

Inflation of the socket causes it frictionally to engage both the stump I! and the limb I5. The stump I1 is thus pneumatically cushioned within the limb.

Since the socket moulds itself to the exact contour of the stump IT on inflation, it need not be custom-built; and a few standard sizes of sockets can therefore be fabricated to suit all cases. The cost of such standard sockets being obviously far less than that of a custom-made leather socket, the cost of the limb as a whole is materially reduced.

The frictional engagement of the socket around the stump ll also is beneficial to the comfort of the wearer, since relative movement between v 3 the stump l1 and the limb I5 is largely if not wholly taken up by movement of the Walls 6, 1 relatively to one another; so that the stump, I1 is not subjected to abrasion. On the other hand, the presence of the webs 9 prevents such relative movement of the walls 6, l as would cause the stump H to move wholly or partially out of the limb l5. l v

The socket of the invention is beneficial to health also by reason of the fact that inflation of the socket does not occur at and in the vicinity of the webs, so that a series of air pocketsorducts 23 result.

I claim: Y

1. A socket for the stump of an amputated leg, the socket being double-walled and made of a resiliently flexible material, the Walls being spaced apart to provide an enclosed airtight cavity; a

series of webs spanningthe cavity and dividing it into a number of interconnected compartments; and a valve secured to the socket to permit'in flation and deflation of the socket.

2. The socket claimed in claim 1 in which the webs are arranged longitudinally as well as circumferentially to provide a recticulation of compartments.

3. The socket claimed in claim 1 in which the webs are arranged to provide, on inflation of the socket, a series of air pockets at least at the inside surface of the socket.

THOMAS C. OGORMAN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITEDSTATES PATENTS Date 

